Reports suggest demand for shares in Twitter is so high they are 30 times oversubscribed and likely to soar in value in early first day trading.

The social network set a price on Wednesday of $26 (£16) for its public stock offering, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at 14.30 GMT though it may take some time for the moves in the price to become available amid a frenzied rush for the stock.

Some estimates suggest they could rise to a value of $46 each in early moves.

The sale price valued the San Francisco-based micro blogging site at more than $18bn (£11.2bn) based on its outstanding stock, options and restricted stock expected to be available after the Initial Public Offering (IPO).

It is offering 70 million shares with an option to buy another 10.5 million.

Twitter had originally set a price range of $17 (£10.57) to $20 (£12.44), but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.

A statement from the company read: "We've priced our initial public offering of 70,000,000 shares of our common stock at a price to the public of $26 (£16) per share.

"In addition we've guaranteed the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 10,500,000 additional shares of common stock.

"Our shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE on November 7 under the symbol TWTR."

Analysts said they expected shares in the company to experience a small rise during the first day of trading.

Investor enthusiasm for Twitter, which boasts 230 million users, is strong even though the micro-blogging site has never turned a profit.

Despite this, Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Jo White suggested technology companies with large numbers of users will not always translate them into big profits.

"In the absence of a clear description, it can be hard not to think that these big numbers will inevitably translate into big profits for the company.

"But the connection may not necessarily be there. What if only a fraction of those users are paying customers?

"What does that mean for future financial results? What if the bulk of the growth in the number of users is in an area where the company has not yet figured out how to turn those users into paying customers?

"What does that then say about the meaning of user growth rates?"

As is customary on the NYSE, there will be a person designated to ensure that the IPO is not marred by technical glitches - as happened when Facebook floated on the tech-focussed Nasdaq.

Twitter has hired Barclays Capital to be its "designated market maker (DMM)," a critical role when a stock starts trading.

A DMM is an experienced trader who supervises the trading of a company's stock on the NYSE.

If technical problems arise, the NYSE uses DMMs to bypass electronic trading systems, allowing people to trade a company's stock which is not possible on all-electronic stock exchanges such as the Nasdaq.